The Dark Entity

Chapter 11: The Search

Clover was thrown down on the ground, her back and head hitting a hard surface behind her. She squeezed her eyes shut, in attempt to ease the pain. After she composed herself, she took a moment to examine her surroundings and figure out where she was. The space around her was dark, so she couldn't see much, but one thing she knew was that the walls around her were rocky and solid. She placed a hand on the wall behind her, feeling the cool surface. Clover leaned back on the same wall and took a deep breath in. She would look for a way out of this cave in a moment, right now she wanted to rest.

She exhaled and closed her eyes, wishing nothing more than for everything to be normal and to be back with her friends. She could say that now- that they were friends. She'd only met them throughout the past month, but she'd heard once that people become closer when they're experiencing something new together. She wasn't sure about the others, but this was definitely a new experience for her- and Astrid too.

Astrid.

She missed them already. So much. She thought about all the things they'd gone through together, and how none of those things were as risky or new as this journey was. Clover did think that they'd gotten closer because of this, and she knew it was because they were the only two who were familiar with each other. She wanted to be with her best friend right now. They made her strong, they made her happy, they made her feel something. She realized now that she couldn't imagine her life in the future without Astrid in it.

• • •

"She's gone," Astrid forced out, their expression full of worry.

"Hey, try not to stress too much. We'll find her," Ignacia assured, rubbing soothing circles in their back to comfort them.

The five of them had spent a while looking around nearby for any sign of the fairy girl. When they couldn't find her, they dragged themselves away to find a place to rest and think. The area they had found, and were now located in, was a creek. There was a stream of water that flowed over the rocks on the ground, as well as trees forming the perimeter of the secluded habitat.

They were sitting at the edge of the small river, and trying to form some kind of plan for getting Clover back.

"Yeah, we will," Ariston agreed, nodding his head. "She was always so friendly."

Iggy nodded and hummed in agreement with him.

He smiled to himself in memory of the girl with the nature powers, "She was so positive and honestly had a very happy-go-lucky feeling to-"

"Stop talking about her in past tense!" Astrid shouted, interrupting him and shutting him up.

Sterling took a nearby stone and threw it in the narrow flowing body of water out of frustration. Before it could splash into the water, Mizu raised his finger and controlled the water to make it shoot up and push the rock away. Sterling glanced at the other boy and took another stone from beside him, tossing that one into the water as well. Mizu, once again, manipulated the water to push it away. But before the rock could get thrown off to the side like the first one had, Sterling focused on it and used his telekinesis to bring it back to him. Mizu rolled his eyes and flicked his hand, making a few drops of water land on the other boy's nose. He snorted and rubbed his nose to get rid of the water. He concentrated on the strands of Mizu's dyed hair, using his telekinetic powers to make it float around his head.

"Hey!" He yelped in complaint.

"Oops," Sterling replied with a grin, innocently shrugging.

"Will you two stop fooling around?" Ignacia butted in, narrowing her eyes at the two.

"It's okay, Iggy," Astrid told her, placing a hand on her knee. "They've probably been bored lately, let them do something."